


Dumb Sloth

by chordatesrock



Category: The Goonies (1985)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Child Abuse, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Happy Ending, IDD character in charge of his own life, One Shot, Post-Canon, angry!Sloth is best Sloth, canon horrible backstory, compliant with movie canon but not spinoff canon, help that is helpful rather than smothering, internalized ableism, suddenly assertive PWD is assertive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 06:32:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/884054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chordatesrock/pseuds/chordatesrock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of the movie, Sloth visits his mother in prison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dumb Sloth

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to jesse_the_k, my beta. :) I decided not to try to make the narrative sound like Sloth's diction. I suspect Sloth thinks more than he can say, and I went with conveying the concepts I think he would think, rather than the words he'd use to describe what he was thinking.

Sloth Fratelli didn’t know what to say.

“Oh, honey,” said his mother. “I’ll get out soon and then I can take care of you again!” She had to speak loudly to be heard.

“Don’t want you,” he said. “I don’t _want_ you taking care of me.” For a moment, he expected a beating for that. Dumb Sloth, she couldn’t get through that glass, but he was too stupid to remember.

(The man from the Center for Independent Living told him that wasn’t true and everyone felt that way after being hurt like he was. Sloth wanted to believe that, but he couldn’t.)

“Now, you listen here, Sloth. No one else can take care of you like I can! I’m a good mother! I fed you, didn’t I?” Then she stopped sounding angry. “I’m sorry, Sloth, you’re right. Everything I do is horrible! I can’t do anything right! You’re better off without me!”

He didn’t know what to say; he just moaned. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she hurt him and he didn’t want to go back to her. But he didn’t want to hurt her. He loved her.

“Quiet, Sloth! You’re wasting our time! So, tell me, what are they doing with you?” she asked.

Sloth felt something very odd inside him. He didn’t really want to tell her, but he always had to answer her when she asked him questions. “I won a gold medal at the Special Olympics,” he said. “I’m a winner!” Maybe if he kept talking, she wouldn’t ask him things he didn’t want to answer. He didn’t want her to know about Chunk and his family, but he didn’t know why. “I won a gold medal at powerlifting.” He stumbled over the word; it was still new and hard to say. “I won. I can lift the most.”

“Uh-huh. And where does this boy you’re staying with live?” she asked.

He moaned again. He didn’t want to tell her.

“It’s okay, honey. Hush. Hush! Just answer the question,” she said.

He tried to make himself very small. It wouldn’t work, dumb old Sloth, there he went again... stupid Sloth. The man from the Center for Independent Living told him he didn’t have to tell anyone-- anyone at all, even his mother-- anything he didn’t want to. The man from the Center for Independent Living told him he didn’t have to do anything she said anymore. Chunk said that, too. So did Chunk’s parents. So did Mikey. But he didn’t want to make her angry. She was nicer when she wasn’t angry.

“House,” he said. Chunk lived in a house. There were lots of houses around, so she wouldn’t know which one it was.

“Uh-huh. And what is the _address_ of this house?” she asked.

He didn’t want to tell her. Chunk told him not to tell her. He didn’t want her to come back. He wanted her to stay in jail and stay away from him.

“It’s an easy question, Sloth, just tell me!”

“Parents!” he said. Chunk’s parents. She could ask them. They’d know. They were both smart. They had experience Sloth didn’t and even Chunk didn’t. He’d feel safer if they were the ones dealing with his mother.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sloth felt sick. She wanted him to tell her. She asked him and now he had to tell her, but he still didn’t want to. He still didn’t want her to come for him. He was scared.

(Dumb Sloth. She was behind glass and maybe he could break it, but she couldn’t.)

He stood up and roared at her. “DON’T WANNA TELL YOU!”

Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened and she stared up at him for a minute. Then she started shouting. He didn’t want to be shouted at again. She did that a lot.

Chunk said that was wrong. The man from the Center for Independent Living said she was abusive and everyone said _that_ meant he didn’t have to listen to her if he didn’t want to.

“Quiet!” he said.

That was when the important man from the prison, whose name and title Sloth had learned twice and forgotten twice, came up to him.

“You need to leave now,” said the important man from the prison.

Oh, yeah. Shouting and getting angry was against the rules. “Sorry,” he mumbled. Dumb Sloth, forgetting the rules, stupid selfish bad Sloth... just for getting angry when somebody was abusive.

So maybe this time, he wasn’t quite so bad. After he left, he’d ask Chunk’s parents for a Baby Ruth. He needed a treat after this, because... what had the man from the CIL said? Oh, yeah. That nobody should have to deal with Mama Fratelli, especially not Sloth.


End file.
